Posted by: Tom Lancaster | March 31, 2010

Sleeping in a Uruguayan shed


Epsiode 7: Puerto Madryn/Buenos Aires x 2/Punta del Este/Montevideo/Quito, Argentina/Uruguay/Ecuador

Beard length (Tom): King George V
Skin colour (both): Porridge
Location: Quito, Ecuador

Date: 15th March 2010.

People say if you don’t like something the first time you try it, you should give it at least one more go. Well they’re wrong – we’ve now been to Buenos Aires thrice, and it still doesn’t feel like the “Paris of the South” to us. First impressions last!

My last update ended with us about to head to the Peninsula Valdes, near Puerto Madryn, to see some wildlife (although the star attraction, the Right whale, isn’t around at this time of year). When we set out in the morning, we could have been in Dickensian London as we could barely see 5 feet in front of us. Read the whole post…..

Leave a Comment

Posted in Travel | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by: Tom Lancaster | March 31, 2010

Spectacular….. in every sense of the word


Episode 6: El Bolson/El Calafate/El Chalten, Argentina

Beard length (Tom): Matthew Kelly
Skin colour (both): Horlicks
Location: El Calafate, Argentina

Date: 4th March 2010.

There’s having lunch at your desk whilst working and then there’s having lunch. Below are two photos to show you the vistas upon which we’ve gazed during luncheon in El Chalten (Piedras Blancas glacier and the Cerro Torre mountain range).

Piedras Blancas Glacier

Cerro Torre

Once you’ve finished weeping with jealousy, I’ll make you feel a little better by telling you that the lunch was actually mackerel mayonnaise baps…. you can’t have everything I suppose. Read the whole post…..

1 Comment

Posted in Travel | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Posted by: Tom Lancaster | March 31, 2010

Water, wine and faeces


Episode 5: Iguaçu Falls/Buenos Aires/Mendoza, Argentina‏

Beard length (Tom): Ewan McGregor (as Obi Wan Kenobi)
Skin colour (both): Alabaster
Location: Mendoza, Argentina

Date: 18th February 2010.

Hello all. Plenty to update you on as we’ve had a very busy week indeed – we’ve seen an Argentinean in his underpants in the full glare of day, uncovered another example of a country/city promulgating some very generous PR about itself, and I became genuinely scared of a public transport system. Read the whole post…..

Leave a Comment

Posted in Travel | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by: Tom Lancaster | March 31, 2010

Invisible piranhas and an Israeli armadillo fetishist


Episode 4: Pantanal, Brazil

Beard length (Tom): Kenny Everett
Skin colour (both): Skimmed milk
Location: Puerto Iguaçu, Argentina

Date: 9th February 2010.

Well, we made it out of the Brazilian wetlands in one piece, though not without discovering the hard way that pasty white British flesh attracts mosquitoes like shoe shops attract my wife.

Mosquito repellent doesn’t put these guys off, we might as well have coated ourselves with something sticky and sweet and attached light bulbs to each limb – we each have approximately thirty very itchy bites, but at least it gives our skin a slightly more interesting colour than white. Read the whole post…..

1 Comment

Posted in Travel | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by: Tom Lancaster | March 31, 2010

Lazy post


Episode 3: Praia do Pipa, Brazil

Beard length (Tom): George Best
Skin colour (both): The moon
Location: Praia do Pipa, Brazil

Date: 2nd February 2010.


Pipa has been a very relaxing experience – more touristy and more Westerners. Beaches are lovely and we’ve spotted many dolphins during our long lazing sessions.

Not a huge amount to report, so I’ll keep this short and just let you know that tomorrow we fly from Natal to Goiania en route to the Pantanal (Brazilian wetlands), where we expect to be eaten alive by mosquitoes and/or caimans. If we make it out alive, we’ll send a fuller update in a week or so.

Hope all’s well in Blighty.

*********************************************************************
Any comments or questions are very welcome. However, bear in mind that we’re travelling around the world for 11 months, with varying standards of internet access, so won’t always be able to respond quickly!

Leave a Comment

Posted in Travel | Tags: , , , , , , ,

Posted by: Tom Lancaster | March 30, 2010

Something deserted and something tall


Episode 2: Salvador/Penedo/Maceio/Praia do Pipa, Brazil

Beard length (Tom): David Gest
Skin colour (both): Eau de Nil (currently with random crimson patches)
Location: Praia do Pipa, Natal

Date: 28th January 2010.

Greetings all. Benjamin Franklin said that “nothing is certain in life but death and taxes” – in Brazil there’s another certainty – the length of any bus journey will be 20-25% longer than advertised.

There are other near certainties here:

  • no taxi will have more than one working seatbelt (usually none);
  • producing any bank-note including and upwards of 20 reais (about 7 quid) will be met with a reaction somewhere between surprised and aghast, followed by a head-shaking search for such a large amount of change;
  • when crossing a street, you will be given 8 seconds before the cars bear down upon you (if you miss this opportunity you may have to wait upwards of 40 minutes for your next one);
  • Brazilians will watch TV at full volume, even if the only thing on is a blank screen and white noise; and
  • if there’s a special 2 hour rate on a motel called “Love Motel”, it’s only going to be used for one thing (sadly there’s no 5 minute rate and I’m not going to waste 115 minutes). Read the whole post…..

Leave a Comment

Posted in Travel | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by: Tom Lancaster | March 30, 2010

Why the Brazilian PR team is better than the Brazilian soccer team….


Episode 1: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

‏

Beard Length (Tom): Ian Bell
Skin Colour (both): Opaque Duck Egg Blue
Location: Santa Theresa, Rio de Janeiro

Date: 18th January 2010.

Greetings from Brazil.

So, after finally deciding to put our careers on hold for 11 months, my wife Jane and I jetted out of  Heathrow bound for Rio. We asked approximately 38 BA staff whether an upgrade was possible (and at one point it looked hopeful), but eventually took our seats in cattle class.

The flight was inevitably delayed, but was pleasant enough, apart from BA’s decision to surround us with kids. They were pretty well-behaved actually, but when children are sitting in the aisle and throwing toys at your feet, you can’t help feeling like Jonny Wilkinson approaching a penalty under the posts. Read the whole post…..

Leave a Comment

Posted in Travel | Tags: , , , , , ,

Posted by: Tom Lancaster | January 5, 2010

Gap year itinerary


When you’re planning a year (or in our case, 11 months) travelling around the world, you’re never going to be able to decide from the outset exactly how long you want to spend in each country, or where and what you want to see.

To some extent, we have flown by the seat of our pants and made many decisions en route – some of the places we’ve been to we wouldn’t have even heard of about a week before getting there, let alone when planning our trip. Read the whole post…..

5 Comments

Posted in Travel | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by: Tom Lancaster | January 5, 2010

Gap year packing


When we decided to go travelling for 11 months, one of the key decisions was what to bring with us and what to leave at home.

We’ve met many people on our travels who’ve had the same dilemma and we’re often asked “How do you pack for 11 months”. So here’s how we did it: Read the whole post…..

6 Comments

Posted in Travel | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Posted by: Tom Lancaster | January 5, 2010

Gap year budget


Even more difficult than trying to work out what to take and where to go, was trying to ascertain how much cash the whole thing was going to cost.

We found the internet had hardly any useful information, and the only budget calculator we found online turned out to be woefully out of date. Read the whole post…..

6 Comments

Posted in Travel | Tags: , , , , , , ,

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »

Categories